The transactions rose by 0.82% in value to reach a total of 2,813.72 trillion rials ($21 billion) as of Jan 20, according to a report on the Shaparak website.
On a y/y basis, volume and value of transactions rose respectively by 18.87% and 37.83%. The increase is ascribed partly to rising inflation, which by nature push up the value of transactions, Financial Tribune reported.
Increase in the number of receiving instruments and debit cards plus growing tendency among the public to use electronic payment methods instead of cash are also attributed to the rise in annual transitions.
Shaparak in its report presented data in real value terms to adjust for inflation. Accordingly, the real value of transactions fell 0.01% during the month when adjusted for inflation. Likewise, the real value of transactions experienced 9.12% annual rise.
Payment Instruments
Shaparak offers services via internet, cellphone and point of sale (POS) devices. With more than 10.57 million payment instruments operating during the reviewed month, the total number of instruments showed 2.33% growth compared to the month ago.
The rise was mainly attributed to point-of-sale devices in shops, which grew 2.55% to reach 8.16 million. The number of mobile platforms and internet payment gateways rose 1.26% and 2.03% during the month, respectively.
POS devices topped the list of instruments with the highest market share of 77.22%. Mobile instruments came in second with market share of 12.23% and internet payment gateways at 10.56%.
Higher number of POS devices is ascribed to their larger spread compared to other devices as well as their use without the need for supplementary devices such as PC or cellphone, which may not always be accessible.
Processing more than 1.96 billion transactions worth 2,468.68 trillion rials ($18.42 billion) during the period, POS devices accounted for 88.8% of the total number of transactions.
This was followed by internet payment gateways with 5.93% and mobile instruments 5.19%.
Payment Services
In terms of services offered by Shaparak, figures indicate that 84.04% of transactions were conducted for “buying goods and services”.
“Buying cellphone recharges and paying bills” represented 10.65% of the total transactions during the period under review and “checking account balances” accounted for 5.31% of the transactions.
Penetration
As for the penetration rate of payment tools, the report showed that the number of instruments per 10,000 adults (above 18 years old) stood at 1,772 during the month under review.
The highest penetration rate was for POS devices with 1,368 and internet instrument had the lowest with 187 instruments per 10,000 adults.
Tehran province had the highest number of POS devices. During the 30 days, the number of active POS devices operating in the capital rose 2.87% to reach 1.7 million
This was followed by Khorasan Razavi and Isfahan provinces, with 623,023 and 568,589 active devices in operation, respectively.
The lowest number of POS devices was in Ilam Province with 59,666 devices.